Parks and Gardens

June 12, 2015

Today, at Colette's urging, we went after lunch to the Musee de Montmartre for a special exhibition called "The Esprit de Montmartre et l'art modern - 1875-1910." While this is the closest museum to our home, we don't go much, knowing the collection, but I was convinced that the temporary exhibition would be different from that I was familiar with - Wrong! Not that it was bad, just more of the permanent collection, dug up from the bowels for the visitors.

It's true I was a bit put-out at having the see the same stuff again, but ever-the-respectful husband that I am, I looked at the exhibits, admired the newly renovated building (with an elevator to the 3rd floor!) and rested for a while in the newly rejuvenated gardens. The day was perfect and the view of Paris (from the upper floors of the museum's two buildings) was lovely.

September 30, 2009

The Maison du Jardinage is on the Rue Paul Belmondo side of the Bercy Park 1/2 of the way between the Cour St Emilion and Bercy Metro stops. It is a delightful building full of gardening items suitable for urban gardening as well as a great gardening library and an exhibition for kids. And they give gardening lessons.

October 21, 2008

The deconsecrated church marked Billettes (on my map) on the Rue des Archives in the 4th is multi-functional; we bought a rug there two years ago and today it's home to a photo exhibition of old folk, largely in nursing/retirement homes. OK but as usual, the photo on the poster is the best of the lot.

The Tuileries is hosting yet another exhibition of contemporary sculpture, some of which (above by Richard Deacon) I "get" and many I do not. But it's a good excuse to walk through the gardens.

October 07, 2008

We were privileged to experience a great deal in our brief week in Romania and I wanted to communicate some of the high and low lights.

For me the highest light was the opening of the season of the Bucharest Symphony at the dazzling Atheneum playing Mahler's 3rd with two choruses; the place (seating 900) is a real jewelbox for something so fine.

Second was the Museum of Fine Arts - the European section - with its impressive collection containing El Greco, Tintoretto, Brueghel, Rubens and Rembrandt, not to mention a sizeable collection of impressionists and post-impressionists. I was not impressed with the Bohemian crystal exhibition advertised above, however.

My morning joggies/runnies/limpies were in a lovely park with its inevitable packs of abandoned feral dogs.

Unfortunately the architecture is starky, greyly Stalinist for the most part and the Palace of the Parliament,

where I had to speak, is Ceauşescu's revenge, the second largest building the the world and a monster.

June 25, 2008

#1 is a display of 40 or so photos "of emotion" from 30 years of Figaro hung on the Grille of the Gardens that were quite stunning; everything from literally stunned first-responders to 9/11 to the awful conditions of the gold miners in Brazil.

The of course a walk through the gardens past the sculpture they scatter about to -

#2 at the Orangerie of the Luxembourg where they are celebrating France 's chairing of the European Union with a show called "Images d'Europe: 150 ans de photographie en Europe " that has dozens of photos grouped both thematically and by country but not chronologically.

There's everything from the Parthenon and ancient London residences to IKEA's move into China and a windmill farms (circa 2006) in Denmark with Marlene Dietrich and Sigmund Freud thrown in for good measure.A dandy show, and free too.

June 20, 2008

I went looking for the Richard Serra piece in the Tuileries today, having understood that it was one of many other sculptures the powers that be scatter around from time to time, but all I could find entering from the Tuileries Metro Station entrance was one Roy Lichtenstein.

And then I saw off in the distance, standing in back of the fountain and in front of the Place de la Concorde, the Champs-Elysees and La Defense - the Serra -

which from a bit of an elevation looks totally different -

and from the front up close, also different.

Finally, I drifted by the Jeu de Paume to see whasup, and since I'll be unlikely to go to yet another Avedon show, at least captured the poster.